We talk about comics because we love comics.

Author: ComicsJim

I love doing comic reviews and I especially love it when it’s a comic that I have heard about but never had the opportunity to read until now. This is one of those podcasts.

X-men God Loves, Man Kills is the 5th comic in the Marvel Graphic Novel series that came out in 1982. The original is hard to find but, thanks to reprints – you can get a cheap version of it today and, depending on which version you get, you’ll get bonus art and interviews with the creators.

On the left is the original copy of the comic that came out in 1982 and on the right is the current reprint that I purchased. The story was written by long time X-men scribe, Chris Claremont with art by Brent Anderson.

What also makes this a unique podcast – Jon actually read this comic originally when it came out. HE ACTUALLY READ A COMIC THAT I HAD NOT READ! This is a rare feat.

In the podcast we talk about what makes the Marvel Graphic Novel series so special and what was happening in the world during 1982 that actually influenced the comic. There is some reminiscing and shouting – you know, our usual comic talk.

Then we get into talking about the comic. We are introduced to Reverend William Stryker. He is a televangelist that loves God but is not found of mutants.

Stryker apostatizing humanity over mutants

Stryker, in fact, hates mutants with all his might…

I like how Nightcrawler is like “What did I do?”

As you can see in 2 panels that Reverend William Stryker is a very bad, no-good, terrible person and you will find out just what lengths he will go to to eliminate mutants from the face of the earth. If Stryker seems familiar to you, that is because the story from this comic was used in the movie X-men 2 AKA X2. William Stryker is the name of the main villain in the movie.

We talk about the story, its message and our thoughts on Stryker and his army called The Purifiers. We do spoil the story but if you saw X2, you already know how the story goes.

On December 14, 2018 Sony released their 2nd Spider-man related project called Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse.

Now, Venom was Sony’s first Spider-man adjacent movie and it was…okay. Now, Sony is going to do a Miles Morales Spider-man movie…and it’s animated. At the time, my hopes were not too high on this one.

My tune would change though as the lights dimmed in the theater and I was pleasantly surprised by this new animated Ultimate Marvel universe that had Miles Morales as its center. The story was well written. The characters behaved similar to their comic counterparts. The animation was unique enough to make your head turn but one thing that stood out…color.

The vivid…eye catching…color.

WOW! This movie is a visual feast! I did not know how much color existed in the universe until I saw this movie. I guess my eyes were dimmed by the DC monotone tints.

Also, there was plenty of humor in the story as well. This movie had its share of melodrama but it also balanced it with some jokes and good old fashioned slap stick.

Those who stayed for the mid-credits scene will get this joke.

Listen to the podcast. Jon and I will tell you a hundred and one reasons to see this movie. Just because it’s an animated movie, don’t let that deter you from seeing it. It is well worth your time. Once you leave, you will be a fan of Miles Morales and Sony Animation.

The Aquaman movie came out and it made a bajillion dollars. Many people have seen and seem to like this movie.

Now when people hear the name Aquaman, they will stop thinking of this…

And start thinking this…

Jason Momoa is a definite upgrade from cartoon Aquaman but is the movie good? Well…

We don’t pull punches here at Comics Misremembered. We will give you the brutal truth. Jon and I both feel that Aquaman is an okay movie. It isn’t terrible like Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice but it isn’t as good as Wonder Woman or most Marvel movies.

In the podcast we give our opinions on the movie and why we feel the way we do. We also talk about how it could have been a much better movie and give examples of what they could have done. Our hope is that whoever writes the sequel (and there will be a sequel), they heeds all the criticism that people have given (including us) and writes a smaller, more streamlined, character driven movie.

We then go on and talk about the convoluted history of Aquaman in the comics which illustrates how DC had to continue to rework Aquaman’s history in order to make him a great character.

We started a tradition 3 years ago on the podcast called The Hazies where we did a review show for that previous year but we disguised it as an award show.

We still give out the same Hazie as we did back then. Here is a photo of it:

Everyone does year end reviews about the “Best Comics” of that year but we already spend the whole year telling you what comics you should be checking out so why be boring and tell it to you again. Jon and I decided that since it is the Holidays, we want it keep it light and make the last podcast of the year just one big party. This was the inception of The Hazies. This is our 4th Annual Hazie countdown and we create some “Awards” aka jokes for the Comic Industry (more like, at their expense).

See who won the Hazies for:

I’m All About The Foreplay

Circle of Jerks

That Not So Fresh Feeling

I Can’t Feel My Brain

and more! Grab a beverage of your choice, sit in your most comfortable chair and have a laugh with us at The Hazies.

In October 2018, Sony pictures released Venom – a Marvel property that is not directly connected to the MCU. It stars Tom Hardy and received modest reviews. It made over $800 million world wide, but is it worth watching? Especially if you grew up reading the Amazing Spider-man comic from the 90s?

Well, I can only speak for myself so it you are a fan of David Michelinie and Todd MacFarlane‘s run on Amazing Spider-man…

You may not be a fan of the movie. I was underwhelmed at Eddie Brock’s character in the movie. Jon on the other hand, did not read the 90s Spider-man comic and he thought the Venom movie was great!

The 4 main superhero shows on the CW (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow) have been doing crossover events for the last 4 years. We have covered the last 2 crossover events on our podcast for Invasion! and Crisis on Earth X.

For 2018, they are doing a crossover event for Elseworlds but it includes Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl. Legends of Tomorrow was not involved this time around.

In the podcast this week, we go over the concept of Elseworlds and were it came from in DC comics continuity. We talk about a couple of the very first comics to actually have the Elseworlds imprint: Batman – Gotham by Gastlight and Batman – Holy Terror.

After we talk about DC’s history with Elseworlds, we then talk about the crossover event and how they used this concept of alt-reality on Barry Allen and Oliver Queen.

Jon and I then go into a discussion on the show’s overall storyline and what we took away after the event ended.

If you watched the event but don’t know much about the comics, we give you some good suggestions on what comics to pick up.

We have another fantastic new comics review round up for you this week. There are literally dozens of new series that have started between November and December. Jon and I have culled the wheat from the chaff to bring you 4 great books that you should be reading right now!

Here is the order of the comics and which one of us is doing the review…

Review 1 – Jon

Prodigy #1

Writer Mark Miller and Artist Rafael Albuquerque

Image comics

Review 2 – Jim

Electric Warriors #1

Writer Steve Orlando Artist Travel Foreman

DC Comics

Review 3 – Jon

Middlewest #1

Writer Scottie Young Artist Jorge Corona

Image Comics

Review 4 – Jim

Bitter Root #1

Writer David F. Waller and Chuck Brown Artist Sanford Green

Image Comics

4 great review for 4 great books. Listen to the podcast and see why you should go out and purchase these comics!

Season 9 has been billed as the “finale season for Rick Grimes“. AMC even started counting down the episodes for Rick’s final appearance. Jon and I have seen all the episodes of Season 9 of TWD up to the mid-season finale and we will be talking about Rick’s final rodeo and other story lines in this week’s podcast.

We tackle questions like:

Do you like how the Sanctuary vs Oceanside story was tied up?

What are our thoughts on Rick’s ‘final’ episode?

How do you fell about the time skip and the introduction of Magna and her group?

Magna – sympathetic new character or just a female Rick Grimes retread?

We also opine on the newest adversary, The Whisperers – who are they? WHAT ARE THEY? How sane are you if you think wearing human flesh is okay? Finally, we here Jon’s thoughts on Negan’s open door.

Finally, we wrap up the podcast by reviewing my Spoiler predictions based on the comic’s story and seeing just how accurate they were or were not. This is a spoiler free podcast (unless you have not watched all the episodes up to the Season 9 finale. If this is true, go watch them and then come back).

Stan Lee founder and co-creator of a majority of the Marvel characters passed away on November 12, 2018.

Jon and I wanted to celebrate his life and legacy in this week’s podcast.

We go over his humble beginnings, why he changed his name from Stanley Martin Lieber to just Stan Lee, his military years, the artists he worked with and the characters he created, his philosophy on how to create comics and why he wanted to humanize his heroes, quick discussion on one of Stan’s favorite stories “The Galactus Trilogy” and his personal philosophy on how to treat others and why comics are a powerful medium.

Hello and welcome back to Comics Misremembered. I wanted to take a moment and post about the passing of a comics legend, Stan Lee. He was a man of vision. When he began writing in the 50s and 60s, a comic writer was considered an embarrassing job, but Stan saw it as an opportunity. With the help of some great artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Stan was able to create some of the greatest stories of all time that have gone on to be loved by generations.

Normally, we record our podcast on the weekend but due to schedules this week, we recorded the podcast as week early so we did not have the opportunity to talk about Mr. Lee’s passing. We will rectify this in our next podcast.

Speaking of great stories and creators, this week’s podcast ran through the Spider-man comics of the 80s. It is considered to be the definitive Kraven the Hunter story and it’s goes by the title – Kraven’s Last Hunt.

Kraven’s Last Hunt was a 6 issue miniseries that ran through the Spider titles in 1987. There were 3 books then which where: Amazing Spider-man, Peter Parker, Spectacular Spider-man and Web of Spider-man.

The Story was written by J. M. DeMatteis with cover and interior artwork done by Mike Zeck (pencils) and Bob McLeod (inker).

Here are some of the covers:

Jon had never read this comic before and I only read it in a trade I picked up back in the early 90s. We explain in the podcast why this is a great comic and why anyone that is interested in Spider-man should pick it up and read it. It is a well crafted story about one of Spider-man’s lest known villains.

If you happen to be down at the beach and there is a spacey blonde staring off into the distant horizon, you don’t ask her if she is okay. You keep moving and mind your business. You’ll do this if you know what’s good for you and you’ll especially do this if you are a character in a Ed Brubaker Criminal story.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is the latest story from writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips in their Criminal anthology series. Unlike their other series, it is a hardcover novella instead of the traditional 4 to 5 issue miniseries. The books are published through Image Comics.

This story focuses on young Ellie and her time spent in a high class rehab center. She tells us of her past problems with addiction which stem form her mother’s struggles with drugs. She is draw to people with addiction problems and that explains why she listens to a lot of music where the lead singer has died of drug overdoses (and also explains the title).

While in rehab, she must attend ‘group sessions’ – a sharing therapy session where other addicts share their problems in a sitting circle. While in a group session, Ellie shares her thoughts on drugs…

As you can see, Ellie is not having a great time at rehab but she did meet a nice boy and maybe they can have some fun together.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is a great read. The story and art are top notch. Jon and I go over the story by we don’t spoil it. Listen to the podcast and if you are looking for something more than superheroes in comics, we recommend picking this comic up.

Last week, Jon and I started the discussion of one of Grant Morrison’s most controversial, divisive works – The Filth.

We had so much to say about this 13 issue miniseries that we keep the conversation going from last week. We continue the adventures of Greg Feely/Ned Slade as a member of the secret police called The Filth.

If you missed last weeks discussion, you will see a link for Podcast 179 at the bottom of this post. I highly recommend that you start there and then come back here for the 2nd half.

I made a joke that The Filth was like X-Files but with a perverse twist so you could call it the XXX-Files. That is why you hear the X-Files theme at the start of Podcast 180.

We continue to talk about Ned Slade’s strange cases and then get into the ultimate discovery of what The Filth is and were it comes from.

Jon recently picked up the collected miniseries The Filth by Grant Morrison and Chris Weston. Originally published by DC under the Vertigo imprint in 2002.

I remember reading the original series in issues when it was originally released. It is a bizarre and humorous look at a secret police force that “cleans” away people and things that affect the “Status:Q”.

Here are some of the original covers to the series when it was released as issues. As you can see, the covers are minimalist but don’t really describe what is actually happening in the book. It does grab your eye and make you want to take a peek at what is happening inside…

Those that dared were treated to Chris Weston’s art. I bought the book because Grant Morrison wrote it but Chris’ artwork was icing on the cake.

Jon and I relive the miniseries and try to explain why you should do yourself a favor and read this book. We go through the whole series and try to touch on what we liked (and a few bits that we wished Morrison would have changed).

***WARNING BEFORE YOU LISTEN TO THE PODCAST***

This is an adult comic that deals with adult situation (mostly in a humorous way) so if you have delicate sensibilities, you may not wish to listen to this nor buy the comic. Also, we talk about the whole thing so there will be spoilers in parts 1 this week and part 2 next week.

In the podcast, I promised to show what a Hand agent’s uniformed looked like. I was actually able to pull a good image. Here is Ned Slade – Agent of Hand!

I apologize in advance for this week’s recording. Jon and I both have head colds and we feel like we are the walking dead right now. We did not want to wait a week to talk about this so please bare with us.

Jon and I have watched the premiere of Season 9 of the Walking Dead and we go over the show. There have been many changes since the end of season 8: Negan is no longer in control of the Saviors. Rick and the Survivors have taken control of Sanctuary and it, as well as the other communities, have started to produce their own crops and thrive. This is just a start of the new society that Rick wants to make by there are many hurdles that they will still have to overcome.

We go over some plot points and speculate on the future of this season.

***SPOILER ALERT!!!***

And we wrap the podcast up with our Complete Season Spoiler Review for Season 9 up until the mid-season finale. We do this by giving plot points from the comic and take guesses on if it will be used in the show. We have been doing this for a few years now and the predictions have been pretty accurate so far.

We’ll be back to talk about the rest of the season at the end of the mid-season finale.

Links to our podcast:

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I love doing comic reviews and I especially love it when it’s a comic that I have heard about but never had the opportunity to read until now. This is one of those podcasts. X-men God Loves, Man Kills is the 5th comic in the Marvel Graphic Novel series that came out in 1982. The … Continue reading CM Podcast 191 – Xmen God Loves, Man Kills

On December 14, 2018 Sony released their 2nd Spider-man related project called Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse. Now, Venom was Sony’s first Spider-man adjacent movie and it was…okay. Now, Sony is going to do a Miles Morales Spider-man movie…and it’s animated. At the time, my hopes were not too high on this one. My tune would … Continue reading CM Podcast 19 […]

The Aquaman movie came out and it made a bajillion dollars. Many people have seen and seem to like this movie. Now when people hear the name Aquaman, they will stop thinking of this… And start thinking this… Jason Momoa is a definite upgrade from cartoon Aquaman but is the movie good? Well… We don’t … Continue reading CM Podcast 189 – Aquaman Movie […]

We started a tradition 3 years ago on the podcast called The Hazies where we did a review show for that previous year but we disguised it as an award show. We still give out the same Hazie as we did back then. Here is a photo of it: Everyone does year end reviews about … Continue reading CM Podcast 188 – 4th Annual Hazie Awards

In October 2018, Sony pictures released Venom – a Marvel property that is not directly connected to the MCU. It stars Tom Hardy and received modest reviews. It made over $800 million world wide, but is it worth watching? Especially if you grew up reading the Amazing Spider-man comic from the 90s? Well, I can … Continue reading CM Podcast 187 – Venom Movie […]

The 4 main superhero shows on the CW (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow) have been doing crossover events for the last 4 years. We have covered the last 2 crossover events on our podcast for Invasion! and Crisis on Earth X. For 2018, they are doing a crossover event for Elseworlds but … Continue reading CM Podcast 186 – CW’s Elseworld Cros […]

We have another fantastic new comics review round up for you this week. There are literally dozens of new series that have started between November and December. Jon and I have culled the wheat from the chaff to bring you 4 great books that you should be reading right now! Here is the order of … Continue reading CM Podcast 185 – New Comics Review

Season 9 has been billed as the “finale season for Rick Grimes“. AMC even started counting down the episodes for Rick’s final appearance. Jon and I have seen all the episodes of Season 9 of TWD up to the mid-season finale and we will be talking about Rick’s final rodeo and other story lines in … Continue reading CM Podcast 184 – The Walking Dead Season 9 M […]

Stan Lee founder and co-creator of a majority of the Marvel characters passed away on November 12, 2018. Jon and I wanted to celebrate his life and legacy in this week’s podcast. We go over his humble beginnings, why he changed his name from Stanley Martin Lieber to just Stan Lee, his military years, the … Continue reading CM Podcast 183 – The Legend of Stan […]

Hello and welcome back to Comics Misremembered. I wanted to take a moment and post about the passing of a comics legend, Stan Lee. He was a man of vision. When he began writing in the 50s and 60s, a comic writer was considered an embarrassing job, but Stan saw it as an opportunity. With … Continue reading CM Podcast 182 – Kraven’s Last Hunt